Classic Poem

TECHNIQUE

Could but this be brought
Into your ken, — that the technique is thought!
Escape from " Style, " the notion men can use
Words without thoughts, — so wrench and so abuse
The innocent language to their ends that they
Will seem to be respectful, honest, gay,
Grave, or what else, — and all the glorious while
The authors' selves sit with the wise and smile:
" 'Tis but a trick, 't is words, it is a style! "

Your technique, then, is thought, just as I say.
And if you 'll write a poem, there's no way
But first to think it clearly; pin your mind
Upon your thought; fasten it there, and bind
The thought into your heart: when your veins burn and flow
With love or hate, the thoughts to music go,
Melt into music, and pour fully out
In a rich flood; — but to take thought about
The " music " of your words, 't is matter quite
Beyond your conscious power! For rhymes, they're right
Or wrong according as they hear, not look
When printed by a printer in a book!
And their " correctness " may be measured best,
And indeed only, by a certain test:
That, namely, for rebellions, — which are so
Until they have succeeded, when they go
By quite another name. Forget not, too,
That every English poet known to you,
That is to say all of them, rhymed just as
The spirit took them and their pleasure was,
And, masters that they were, rhymed " falsely, " so
As now no poetaster dares to do!